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Posted on 12/24/2025 10:51:38 AM PST by Fiji Hill
As any sports fan can attest, rivalries are one of the absolute best part of sports.
If your team is having a horrific year? It can still almost be salvaged by beating your rival, which is especially true in collegiate sports.
So why in the world have the University of Southern California and the University of Notre Dame decided to toss their historic rivalry to the wayside?
It’s a question that has legendary former USC wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson furious with his alma mater.
And he took to social media to air his grievances:
"Okay, we’ve got people in there that are not Trojans, that don’t know anything about being a Trojan, running our athletic department. We got a head coach [Lincoln Riley] that knows nothing about being a Trojan,..That doesn’t make any sense. I grew up on Notre Dame-USC rivalry.”
Johnson continued to rant about the state of his alma mater for another minute or so, but the message was loud and clear: This was simply unacceptable to anyone who cares about the tradition and pageantry of college football.
For many college football purists, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg as the sport slowly morphs into something more resembling the NFL, with paid players and the transfer portal effectively operating as collegiate free agency.
But to the chagrin of college football purists, the cat appears to be out of the bag — and there may be no “going back.”
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
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Mistakenly saw the late, lamented Laken Riley’s name in the headline for a split second.
“Okay, we’ve got people in there that are not Trojans, that don’t know anything about being a Trojan, running our athletic department. We got a head coach [Lincoln Riley] that knows nothing about being a Trojan,
Johnson seems to understand the importance of Trojans.
Good for him.
Student Body Right... Good ol’ John McKay...
“Coach, What do you think of your team’s execution?”
“I’m in favor of it.”
There’s a Mel Brooks’ joke in there somewhere, but I’ll leave that to someone else. ;-)
There is no going back NIL is here to stay. In another five years or even sooner there will be three super conferences and that will be it.
The big thing K. Johnson has forgotten ....there is no more classic “Notre Dame” or “Trojans”....
the teams are composed of athletes and coaches peddling their skills to the highest bidders...they go from one school to the next. They must almost get no education. There is no loyalty among the players for a particular schools ethos or mindset.
Find something better to root for. College football, as previously incarnated, is done.
I caint wait for Carmelo Anthony to start playing in the WNBA. The TWNBA. He will dominate with smaller balls.
“In another five years or even sooner there will be three super conferences and that will be it.”
I hear you.
The Big Ten is IMHO borderline unrecognizable with the recent additions of Maryland, USC, Oregon, etc.
Call me old school but there should always be some kind of geographic component to these conferences. The Big Ten was always intended to be primarily a midwestern conference. Having UCLA and Rutgers in it makes it look anything like a midwestern conference.
Only Joe Biden can screw up the victim's name AND call attention to himself at the same time.
I’ve been a foosball fan since I was old enough to know what it was. The first game that I *truly remember* watching was the ‘72 AFC championship game between the Chiefs and the Dolphins.
A few years later, when I was finally stout enough, I started humping a rack of cold drinks up and down the ten bazillion very steep steps at Faurot Field in exchange for a “free” ticket so I could be there to watch my beloved Missouri Tigers play.
54 years later I don’t recognize what has become of the game.
I hope they all go broke.
After the Domers blew us out in 1966, McKay told his team, "forget it. After all, there are 700 million Chinese who don't even know the game was played."
That’s why. Thanks. Something from the back of my mind . . .
How about the Atlantic Coast Conference? From the top rows of Memorial Stadium in at UC Berkeley, you can see the Pacific Ocean, and you can see San Francisco Bay from the top of Stanford University's Hoover Tower. But you can't see any ocean from Pittsburgh or Louisville, which are located in states with no seacoast.
Exactly. They also need to quit calling them “student athletes”. ,,,,with Nil and transfer protocols, that term is now a joke. They are now professional football players, PERIOD.
“How about the Atlantic Coast Conference?”
Excellent Point!
Why She’s Seen as a Good Fit:
Proven Success at Washington: She led UW to multiple Pac-12 titles, New Year’s Six bowls in football, and deep runs in women’s basketball and softball, showcasing broad athletic success.
Fundraising Prowess: Known for building donor relationships and securing major gifts, crucial for USC’s massive budget and NIL initiatives, including a significant gift for the football center.
Strategic Vision: Focused on student-athlete experience, building strong cultures, and adapting to the changing landscape of college sports, especially with the move to the Big Ten.
Key Football Hire: She’s credited with the successful hiring of Coach Kalen DeBoer at Washington, demonstrating an eye for talent.
First Female AD: As the first woman to lead USC athletics, she brings a new perspective and is seen as capable of leading a major program into a new era.
Her Priorities at USC:
Leading USC into the Big Ten conference.
Tripling NIL resources and boosting fundraising.
Cultivating the best student-athlete experience.
Maintaining and investing in all sports programs.
And she’s there during a transition our of the PAC conference.
Jennifer Cohen has proven to be a highly successful and stable choice for USC Athletic Director since her appointment in August 2023. In July 2025, she was named the 2024-25 Sandy Barbour Nike Division I FBS Athletic Director of the Year by Women Leaders in Sports.
Points of Debate/Criticism
Scheduling Controversies: Some fans and media have criticized her decision to move away from traditional non-conference scheduling, such as the reported pause of the Notre Dame series for 2026, which she defended as a strategic move to maximize USC’s path to the College Football Playoff. Her performance is often tied to the success of Lincoln Riley, who she inherited, and must now support in a more competitive Big Ten environment.
Football is a sport of execution. If you do your job better than the guy across the line from you does, you are successful. The players more and more are not interested in the success of the college more than theirs. It all has to do with those future jobs to include the NFL and the salaries that offers. It’s a business coming from after school sports the kids actually played for fun in grammar school. That changed when they got scholarships after high school.
wy69
I've been saying for years, for any college athlete attending any university on a full athletic scholarship as a stepping stone to the pros, the day they sign a pro contract bonus, they should be required to reimburse the university for the full cost of their tuition and room and board.
Agree they’re a free farm system of the pros!
Somehow the pro leagues need to be made to kick in cash and pay for it.
Agree!
How about in exchange for continued Congressional antitrust protection the NFL should be required to underwrite the entire big time college football cost. Set it up as a true minor league\farm system let the colleges\universities lease out their names and current facilities.
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